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MENTICULTURE 


AND 


AGRICULTURE: 

OR, 


WHAT  OUR  SCHOOLS  SHOULD  DO  FOR  AGRICULTURE. 


By  B.  G.  NORTHROP, 

Secretary  of  the  Connecticut  Board  of  Education. 


[From  the  Report  of  the  Connecticut  Board  of  Education.] 


NEW  HAVEN: 

TUTTLE,  MOREHOUSE  & TAYLOR,  PRINTERS. 

1881. 


MENTICULTURE 


AND 

AGRICULTURE: 


OR, 


WHAT  OUR  SCHOOLS  SHOULD  DO  FOR  AGRICULTURE. 


By  B.  G.  NORTHROP, 

Secretary  of  the  Connecticut  Board  of  Education. 


[From  the  Report  of  the  Connecticut  Board  of  Education.] 


NEW  HAVEN: 

TUTTLE,  MOREHOUSE  & TAYLOR,  PRINTERS. 

1881. 


CONTENTS. 


Farming  the  leading  business  of  the  country,  ....  3 

Education  elevates  and  improves  labor,  - - - 4 

Common  English  branches  the  first  essentials,  5 

Reading  and  farming,  -------  6 

Arithmetic  and  farming,  -------  6 

Habits  and  observations  of  farming,  .....  7 

Dignity  of  labor,  - - - - - - - - 10 

Labor  as  an  educator,  - - - - - - - 11 

The  Hebrew  Theory  and  Practice,  - - v*  - - -12 

Agriculture  and  the  practical  sciences,  - - - - - 17 

Farming  and  botany — “ How  plants  grow,”  - - - - 17 

Farming  and  forestry,  - - - - - - - 18 

The  farmers’  homes,  --------  20 

The  education  for  those  who  are  going  to  be  farmers,  - - - 21 

Shade  Trees  along  the  highways,  - - - - - - 28 

Constitution  of  a Rural  Improvement  Association,  ...  29 


WHAT  OUR  SCHOOLS  SHOULD  DO  FOR 
AGRICULTURE.* 


Farming  is  the  leading  and  most  essential  business  of  the 
country,  occupying  more  than  three-fourths  of’  our  laboring 
population.  It  is  the  basis  of  the  wealth,  prosperity  and 
power  of  the  American  people.  Its  depreciation  would  de- 
moralize the  nation.  It  was  the  original,  divinely  appointed 
calling  of  man.  God  planted  a garden  in  Eden  and  made 
it  man’s  first  duty  to  “ dress  and  keep  it.”  When  driven  from 
Eden,  it  was  still  his  mission  to  “ till  the  ground  from  whence 
he  was  taken  and  to  eat  bread  in  the  sweat  of  his  face.”  The 
Creator  plainly  intended  that  Agriculture  should  be  the  ground- 
work of  civilized  society,  the  basis  of  all  progress.  On  its 
prosperity  hang  the  hopes  of  the  race,  far  more  than  on  any 
other  calling.  It  must  provide  the  means  of  sustaining  an  in- 
creasing population,  or  there  can  be  no  growth.  Commerce 
and  manufactures  depend  upon  it  more  than  it  does  upon 
them.  In  the  words  of  W ebster,  “ they  all  stand  together  like 
pillars  in  a cluster,  the  largest  in  the  center,  and  that  largest  is 
Agriculture.”  For  an  interest  so  broad  and  vital  to  the  pros- 
perity of  the  whole  country,  our  schools  should  accomplish  the 
best  possible  results. 

How  that  slavery  is  abolished,  we  have  no  vestige  of  a caste 
system  in  America.  Labor  is  honorable,  and  the  laborer  is 
honored.  The  most  popular  rallying  cry  to  help  a candidate 
for  the  highest  office,  is  some  term  which  affiliates  him  with 
farmers  or  other  workmen,  like  “ the  rail-splitter  ” or  “ the 
tow-path  boy.”  In  contrast  with  the  distinct  classes  and  hered- 
itary nobilities  of  the  old  world,  it  is  our  proud  national  char- 
acteristic, that  we  are  a working  people ; that  he  is  the  noblest 
who  works  most  and  best  for  the  general  weal,  and  that  the 
cause  of  the  workman  is  recognized  as  the  cause  of  all.  The 

* Given  as  the  opening  address  before  the  State  Agricultural  Convention  at 
New  Britain,  December  15,  1880. 
a2 


4 


OUR  SCHOOLS  AND  AGRICULTURE. 


best  way  to  elevate  farming  is  to  elevate  the  farmer.  The  peo- 
ple are  learning  that  mere  muscle  is  weak,  and  that  brains  help 
the  hands  in  all  work ; that  knowledge  and  skill  multiply  the 
value  and  productive  power  of  muscular  efforts.  Whatever 
the  chemical  analyses  of  our  Experiment  Station  may  show, 
the  best  of  all  fertilizers  is  brains.  In  farming  as  everywhere, 
if  knowledge  is  power,  ignorance  is  impotence.  What  a man 
is,  stamps  an  impress  upon  what  he  does,  on  the  farm  or  in  the 
shop.  The  style  of  the  work  depends  on  the  character  of  the 
workman.  Whatever  elevates  the  farmer  ultimately  improves 
his  farming.  Whatever  degrades  the  farmer  at  once  depre- 
ciates his  work.  The  wealth  and  welfare  of  individuals  and 
communities,  always  dependent  on  labor,  can  be  most  fully 
secured  only  by  educated  labor.  You  can  dignify  farming  in 
no  way  so  surely  as  by  educating  and  thus  elevating  the  farmer. 
As  mind  triumphs  over  matter,  the  amount  of  manual  labor 
requisite  to  secure  equal  results  constantly  lessens.  The  future 
improvement  of  farming  depends  on  brain  as  well  as  brawn. 
The  progress  of  civilization  has  always  been  commensurate 
with  man’s  dominion  over  nature  and  his  utilization  of  her 
forces  and  resources.  “ Subdue  the  earth  and  have  dominion 
over  it,”  was  the  primeval  command.  We  gain  that  dominion 
over  nature  just  in  proportion  as  we  discover  and  obey  her 
laws.  In  struggles  for  material  success,  he  wins  who  best 
wields  physical  forces. 

To  enable  our  schools  to  accomplish  better  results  for  Agri- 
culture, I invite  our  farmers  to  do  more  for  the  schools,  and 
especially  to  visit  them.  We  need  a still  higher  appreciation 
of  them  and  a more  active  and  intelligent  interest  in  their  im- 
provement. Apathy  on  the  part  of  parents  would  neutralize 
the  efforts  of  the  best  teachers.  The  character  of  the  schools 
in  every  place  must  answer  to  the  local  public  sentiment.  You 
stimulate  public  interest  by  improving  the  schools  no  more 
surely  than  you  improve  the  schools  by  elevating  public  opin- 
ion. The  Legislature  alone  cannot  create  good  schools.  Right 
laws  may  accomplish  much,  but  the  people,  once  in  earnest, 
will  do  more.  In  our  rural  districts  no  class  can  so  effectually 
advance  this  great  interest  of  the  people  as  the  farmers. 

The  most  essential  service  our  Public  Schools  can  render  for 


OUR  SCHOOLS  AND  AGRICULTURE. 


5 


Agriculture,  is  to  give  all  our  youth  a thorough  training  in  the 
common  English  branches.  These  lay  the  foundation  for  suc- 
cess in  all  after  work,  whether  on  the  farm,  in  the  shop,  or 
store.  The  point  of  greatest  weakness  even  in  our  colleges  is 
found  in  the  deficiency  of  their  candidates  in  the  elementary 
branches.  Thoroughness  here  at  the  outset  means  thorough- 
ness everywhere.  The  habits  of  accuracy,  of  application,  of 
self-control,  and  self-reliance  in  overcoming  difficulties  early 
formed  in  school,  constitute  the  best  preparation  for  the  farm 
and  all  other  callings  of  life.  Far  more  thought  and  time  and 
drill  should  be  given  to  these  simple  elements.  Rightly  taught, 
they  provide  the  truest  discipline  for  the  juvenile  mind  and 
form  the  best  basis  for  all  future  acquisitions.  When  we 
build  the  superstructure  without  a firm  foundation,  all  is  inse- 
cure. The  first  effort  of  the  school  is  to  lay  the  ground  work 
broad  and  strong.  That  done,  and  you  create  the  desire  and 
the  skill  to  build  up  the  edifice ; that  done  and  school  is  a wel- 
come place,  and  study  becomes  a pleasure ; that  done  and  there 
follows  such  a hungering  for  knowledge  that  when  one’s  school 
days  are  ended,  he  realizes  that  his  education  is  but  just  begun, 
and  for  the  rest,  it  shall  be  the  aim  and  pleasure  of  his  life  to 
educate  himself.  Even  though  the  milking  may  summon  him 
early  in  the  morning  and  the  chores  detain  him  late  at  night,  he 
will  seek  time  and  find  time  for  the  cherished  work  of  self- 
impro,<  ement.  Place  him  where  you  will,  let  his  work  press  as 
it  may,  he  will  find  leisure  for  reading,  and  occupy  rainy  days, 
the  long  winter  evenings,  and  all  intervals  of  labor  in  efforts 
for  self-improvement.  Even  the  odd  moments  thus  utilized,  in 
the  end  yield  a large  reward.  The  habit  of  utilizing  these  odd 
moments  and  thus  learning  how  to  economize  time  as  well  as 
money,  has  most  important  moral  bearings.  The  boy  who 
thus  early  learns  that  “life  is  real,  life  is  earnest,”  and  makes 
the  most  of  each  passing  hour,  is  gaining  self-command  and 
self-respect,  high  aims  and  purposes  that  lift  him  above  tempta- 
tion and  give  him  the  true  farmer’s  self-poise  and  conscious  in- 
dependence. 

To  secure  the  best  results  for  our  farmers,  I would  advocate 
giving  greater  prominence  to  reading , vffiich  I have  long  re- 
garded as  by  far  the  most  important  study  taught  in  our 


6 


OUR  SCHOOLS  AfrD  AGRICULTURE. 


schools.  This  is  the  surest  way  to  the  mastery  of  all  higher 
studies.  Early  proficiency  here,  fosters  a fondness  for  books, 
while  aversion  to  study  often  springs  from  tasking  youth  in 
severer  branches  before  they  can  read  fluently.  Let  a child  early 
learn  to  read  with  facility  and,  as  I have  aimed  to  show  in 
another  connection,  he  has  the  key  by  which  he  can  open 
any  door  in  the  temple  of  science.  Isolated  as  the  farmer’s 
homes  necessarily  are,  to  a great  extent,  reading  should  be 
made  the  never  failing  attraction  of  the  long  winter  evenings. 
But  when  it  is  a toilsome  process  to  spell  out  the  words,  there 
can  be  little  pleasure  in  reading,  or  interest  in  the  narrative. 
It  is  the  duty  or  rather  the  privilege  of  the  farmer  to  see  to  it 
that  his  children  are  liberally  supplied  with  attractive  and 
wholesome  reading,  whether  by  the  purchase,  or  exchange  of 
books,  or  by  reading  clubs,  or  by  a town  or  district  library. 
Whenever  its  importance  is  duly  felt,  some  method  of  gaining 
the  proper  supply  will  be  devised. 

For  the  best  results  to  our  farmers  and  to  all  industrial 
classes,  less  time  should  be  given  to  the  complex  puzzles  of 
arithmetic  and  more  to  the  simple  ground  rules.  Master  addi- 
tion, subtraction,  multiplication,  division,  per-centage,  and  the 
keeping  of  accounts  and  the  rest  which  is  of  practical  value  is 
easily  and  quickly  gained.  Our  arithmetics  are  too  volumin- 
ous. Let  there  be  more  drill  in  rapid  mental  combinations 
and  practical  methods  and  principles  and  less  study  of  abstruse 
processes.  Such  topics  as  alligation  medial  and  alternate,  and 
commutation  of  radix  and  others  as  intricate  and  useless,  may 
well  be  omitted  in  a common  school  course.  These  and  kin- 
dred topics  never  applied  in  ordinary  business  fill  a large  space 
in  the  arithmetics  and  waste  much  precious  time  of  the  pupils. 
They  have  the  sanction  of  tradition  rather  than  of  common 
sensei  In  continuing  them,  teachers  and  authors  have  con- 
sulted usage  more  than  utility.  Like  the  titled  scions  of  rank 
in  the  old  world,  they  have  come  down  by  so  long  a literary 
descent,  that  no  one  disputes  their  right  to  their  honored 
place.  Worth  more  than  all  these  obsolete  processes,  is  the 
thorough  mastery  of  the  ground  rules.  Rapid  mental  combi- 
nations should  be  daily  practiced  till  pupils  can  add,  multiply 
and  divide  with  the  utmost  rapidity  and  accuracy.  The  art  of 


OUR  SCHOOLS  AND  AGRICULTURE. 


r 


arithmetic  will  thus  he  mastered  though  the  profundities  of 
the  science  be  not  explored.  Ex-President  Thomas  Hill  of 
Harvard  College,  himself  an  eminent  mathematician,  strongly 
condemns  the  common  practice  of  stupefying  and  disgusting 
pupils  with  premature  attempts  to  understand  arithmetic  as  a 
science,  while  as  a consequence  they  fail  to  acquire  facility  in 
it  as  an  art.  Life  is  not  long  enough  to  spend  so  much  time 
on  the  intricacies  of  compound  proportion,  permutation  and 
the  like,  that  not  one  in  a thousand  ever  applies  in  business. 

The  public  school  should  train  our  youth  in  habits  of  ob- 
servation, which  is  the  prime  secret  of  success  in  farming  and 
forms  the  true  basis  of  all  higher  education.  The  child’s  in- 
tellectual life  begins  with  impressions  from  the  senses,  which 
are  the  windows  of  the  soul.  The  noblest  of  these  and  the 
royal  avenue  to  the  mind  is  the  eye.  This  sense-education, 
commences  in  the  cradle  and  should  continue  through  life. 
Hence  “ things  before  names,  ideas  before  words,”  and  in  higher 
stages,  “ principles  and  processes  before  rules”  should  be  the 
motto.  Too  often  the  teacher  begins  with  books  and  continues 
with  books  only,  teaching  that  which  is  impractical  if  not  in- 
comprehensible to  the  neglect  of  things  nearest  at  hand,  things 
most  interesting,  suggestive  and  useful.  God  designed  nature 
to  be  the  earliest  and  most  constant  teacher  of  the  juvenile 
mind,  and  has  made  objects  and  events  the  leading  instruments 
of  developing  its  faculties.  Invaluable  as  are  books,  they  are 
but  the  art  of  man,  while  nature  is  the  art  of  God.  It  is 
therefore  a narrow  view  of  education  that  makes  books  its 
only  instruments.  . Every  device  should  be  employed  to  foster 
a love  of  nature  and  form  habits  of  careful  observation  of  com- 
mon things.  The  organs  of  sense,  when  not  early  trained,  be- 
come rigid  and  unimpressible.  The  teacher  who  relies  upon 
the  text-book  alone  is  more  than  three  thousand  years  behind 
Job,  whose  maxims  deserve  a place  in  the  most  modern  didac- 
tics. “ Ask  now  the  beasts  and  they  shall  teach  thee  and  the 
fowls  of  the  air  and  they  shall  tell  thee  ; or  speak  to  the 
earth  and  it  shall  teach  thee ; and  the  fishes  of  the  sea  shall  de- 
clare unto  thee.”  Such  a teacher  forgets  the  motto  of  the 
wise  man  who  said,  “ Go  to  the  ant  thou  sluggard  ; consider 
her  ways  and  be  wise,”  or  that  of  the  Great  Teacher  who  said, 


8 


OUR  SCHOOLS  AND  AGRICULTURE. 


“ Consider  the  lilies  of  the  field  how  they  grow,”  and  “ Be- 
hold the  fowls  of  the  air.”  Milton  well  says : “ To  know  those 
things  which  about  us  lie,  in  the  daily  life  is  the  prime  wis- 
dom.” 

I commend  to  our  farmers’  boys  the  advice  given  to  youth 
by  Hugh  Miller  : “ Learn  to  make  a right  use  of  your  eyes , the 
commonest  things  are  worth  looking  at,  even  stones,  weeds 
and  the  most  familiar  animals.  One  of  the  best  schools  I ever 
attended  was  the  miscellany  of  objects  and  circumstances  sur- 
rounding me  in  my  native  district,  challenging  the  first  exer- 
cise of  my  senses  and  fancy,  and  this  is  a species  of  education 
open  to  all.”  True,  but  how  few  are  open  to  it.  How  many 
go  through  the  world  practically  blindfolded.  Under  the  lead 
of  his  Uncle  Sandy  the  keen-eyed  harness-maker,  Hugh  Miller 
while  a boy,  had  observed  carefully  the  rocks,  rains,  tides, 
trees,  ferns,  shell-fish,  sea-fowl  and  insects  along  the  rocky 
shore  of  his  native  Cromarty.  While  working  seventeen 
years  as  stone  mason  in  the  quarries  or  sheds,  he  studied  the 
stones  he  was  hammering  and  thus  became  the  most  eminent 
geologist  of  his  age.  So  in  general,  the  most  distinguished 
men  of  all  ages  and  countries  have  been  close  students  of 
nature  and  observers  of  common  things. 

I have  emphasized  this  subject  because  the  careful  observa- 
tion of  nature’s  processes  is  specially  essential  to  the  success  of 
the  farmer.  Unless  acquired  early,  the  habit  is  not  likely  to  be 
ever  formed.  This  work  cannot  be  done  by  proxy.  The 
judgment  of  the  farmer  must  be  based  on  his  personal  obser- 
vations. Indispensable  as  is  the  knowledge  gained  from  books, 
its  use  and  application  dej>end  on  one’s  own  study  of  things. 
The  failures  of  fancy  farmers  come  from  following  book  theo- 
ries without  that  adaptation  to  changed  local  conditions  which 
personal  observation  and  experience  alone  can  suggest.  Hence, 
both  in  the  family  and  school,  curiosity  should  be  so  stimu- 
lated as  to  prompt  an  insatiable  desire  for  that  knowledge 
which  comes  through  the  senses  when  trained  in  observing  the 
qualities  of  common  things.  Curiosity,  or  what  is  kindred, 
love  of  knowledge,  is  one  of  the  strongest  natural  desires  of 
the  child.  Though  too  often  dwarfed  by  our  blundering, 
when  the  senses  are  sharpened,  it  is  one  of  the  most  vital 


OUR  SCHOOLS  AND  AGRICULTURE. 


9 


forces  in  education,  becoming  the  parent  of  perception  and 
attention,  of  memory,  imagination  and  expression.  It  pre- 
pares the  soil  and  fertilizes  the  seeds  of  truth.  A farmer 
might  as  well  sow  a field  without  plowing  as  a teacher  in- 
struct pupils  in  whose  minds  no  love  of  knowledge  has  been 
awakened.  Strong  in  childhood,  it  should  grow  with  years  and 
attainments.  Though  at  first  a restless  instinct,  it  should 
mature  into  a ruling  passion.  Curiosity  is  to  the  mind  what 
appetite  is  to  the  body.  It  creates  a hungering  for  knowledge 
which  is  the  mind’s  food.  Love  of  truth  was  as  strong  a pas- 
sion with  Newton  or  Agassiz  as  love  of  conquest  with  Napo- 
leon. Under  its  healthful  inspiration,  study  is  a pleasure — 
without  it  a task ; the  dullest  drudgery,  “ a weariness  of  the 
flesh.”  Curiosity  is  the  primal  desire  to  which  the  child’s 
nature  responds;  it  is  the  impelling  power  to  which  genius, 
when  enriched  with  the  treasures  of  science,  is  most  suscepti- 
ble. The  amplest  supplies  only  add  fuel  to  the  flame.  Instead 
of  surfeit,  there  comes  an  intenser  craving  for  more.  Each 
new  attainment  gives  strength  and  stimulus  for  higher  acqui- 
sitions. 

To  show  how  susceptible  is  the  plastic  mind  of  child- 
hood when  consciously  brought  into  contact  and  sympathy 
with  nature,  by  a teacher  competent  to  be  her  interpreter,  I 
mention  two  out  of  a multitude  of  similar  illustrations.  An 
eminent  botanist  narrated  to  me  the  following  personal  inci- 
dent : “ When  I was  a mere  boy,  my  teacher  handed  me  a 
flower,  asking  me  to  notice  all  its  parts,  and  when  I had  done 
so  for  the  first  time  in  my  life,  he  gave  their  several  botanic 
names,  introducing  each  with  its  Saxon  synonym,  which  I 
never  forgot.  'That  brief  talk  of  twenty  minutes  inspired  me 
with  an  interest  in  observation  and  study  that  led  to  collegiate 
culture.”  Said-  another  gentleman,  author  of  popular  text- 
books on  Natural  History,  “ My  teacher  once  invited  me  to 
search  on  my  father’s  farm  for  curious  stones.  I found  a white 
stone  with  sharp  edges,  of  which  he  said,  that  is  a good  speci- 
men, though  very  common,  for  three-quarters  of  the  earth’s 
crust  is  made  up  of  this  stone.  It  is  very  useful.  The  grains 
and  grasses  get  the  sharpness  and  strength  of  their  stalks  from 
a minute  portion  of  this  stone  which- the  rootlets  dissolve  and 


10 


OUR  SCHOOLS  AND  AGRICULTURE. 


send  up  for  their  growth.  It  is  useful  in  the  arts.  You  have 
it  also  in  the  wall  and  in  common  plaster.  Glass  is  made 
of  it,  only  a little  stuff  is  mixed  with  it  to  make  it  work  well, 
and  the  very  best  spectacle  glasses  are  made  of  pure  specimens 
of  stone  like  this,  showing  me  a pure  quartz  crystal,  and  point- 
ing out  its  exact  hexagonal  form  and  pyramidal  cap.  That 
brief  talk  changed  my  history  and  fired  my  mind  with  love  of 
learning.” 

The  farmers’  boys  have  the  best  opportunities  of  learning 
these  practical  lessons  from  nature,  provided  the  teacher  is  com- 
petent to  start  him  in  the  right  lines  of  observation.  On  the 
farm,  birds,  insects,  fishes  and  all  animals,  flowers  and  foliage, 
plants,  shrubs,  creeping  vines  and  trees,  to  say  nothing  of  the 
minerals  under  his  feet,  are  all  practical  primary  teachers. 

In  the  interests  of  Agriculture  and  all  industrial  pursuits, 
onr  youth  should  be  taught  at  school  the  necessity  of  labor,  it& 
vital  relation  to  all  human  excellence  and  progress,  the  evils  of 
indolence  and  the  absurdity  of  the  common  aversion  to  manual 
labor.  This  popular  distaste  for  industrial  pursuits  should  be 
early  counteracted  and  the  silly  and  pernicious  notions  that 
labor  is  menial,  and  that  the  tools  of  the  farm  or  of  a trade  are 
badges  of  servility  should  be  refuted  in  our  schools,  and  more 
should  there  be  said  and  done  to  dignify  labor  and  render  in- 
dustrial pursuits  attractive  and  reputable.  The  Agricultural,. 
Forestral  and  Industrial  Schools,  so  numerous  in  Germany, 
Switzerland  and  other  portions  of  Europe,  have  proved  as  effi- 
cient in  dignifying  labor  as  in  increasing  its  efficiency  and 
market  value.  Girls,  as  well  as  boys,  are  there  early  taught, 
both  in  the  family  and  school,  that  to  learn  to  be  useful  is  alike 
their  duty,  privilege  and  interest. 

Many  of  our  youth  are  afflicted  with  an  ambition  for  easier 
lives  and  more  genteel  employments,  and  with  the  infatuation 
that  city  clerkships  are  the  most  eligible  positions,  while  farm- 
ing and  the  trades  are  not  “ respectable.”  Let  them  learn  that 
the  intelligent  farmers  or  mechanics  have  a better  chance  of 
securing  wealth,  health  and  influence,  than  the  over-crowded 
city  clerkships  can  afford.  In  any  average  farming  commu- 
nity, let  twenty  young  men  form  a stay-at-home  association  and 
employ  their  best  skill  in  rural  pursuits ; and  another  twenty. 


OUR  SCHOOLS  AND  AGRICULTURE. 


11 


we  will  suppose  of  the  same  capacity  and  education,  start  in 
quest  of  city  clerkships,  and,  at  the  end  of  twenty  years,  I am 
confident  our  stay-at-homes  would,  on  the  average,  have  better 
health,  better  characters,  greater  influence  and  more  money 
than  the  twenty  who  turned  their  backs  on  the  humble  indus- 
tries of  the  country. 

Clerks  are  often  paid  less  than  skillful  mechanics,  and  are  less 
independent.  In  their  precarious  positions,  they  are  liable  to 
disappointments  and  humiliating  struggles  with  the  thousands 
of  others  “ looking  for  a place.”  Every  advertisement  for  a 
clerk  brings  a whole  swarm  of  applicants.  How  pitiable  the 
condition  of  this  superabundance  of  book-keepers  and  ex- 
changers wasting  their  lives  waiting  for  a place,  while  our 
farms  and  factories,  .railroads  and  trades,  are  clamoring  for 
educated  superintendents,  foremen,  engineers,  skillful  mana- 
gers and  “ cunning  workmen.”  The  position  of  the  educated 
and  well-trained  farmer  or  mechanic  is  far  preferable  to  that  of 
average  city  clerks.  The  latter  may  dress  better,  talk  more 
glibly,  bow  more  gracefully,  not  to  say  obsequiously,  but  they 
compare  unfavorably  with  our  best  farmers  and  mechanics  in 
manly  independence,  vigor  of  thought  and  strength  of  char- 
acter. 

Too  many  of  our  young  men  leave  the  homestead  on  adven- 
tures less  safe  and  reliable  than  the  arts  of  industry.  A good 
trade  is  more  honorable  and  remunerative  than  peddling  maps, 
books,  pictures,  patent-rights  and  clothes-wringers,  or  in  a city 
store  to  be  cash  or  errand  boy,  store-ssweeper,  fire-kindler  or 
even  book-keeper.  Without  in  any  way  disparaging  the  useful 
position  of  the  clerk,  our  young  men  may  properly  be  cau- 
tioned against  further  crowding  this  already  plethoric  profes- 
sion. To  the  boys  in  the  country  I say,  instead  of  aspiring  to 
an  uncertain  and  precarious  clerkship,  stick  to  the  farm  or  learn 
a trade,  and  you  will  lay  the  broadest  foundation  for  prosperity. 

The  value  of  work  as  an  educator  hitherto  too  little  appre- 
ciated, needs  to  be  taught  in  our  schools.  Children  learn  by 
doing.  This  principle  underlies  the  whole  Kindergarten  sys- 
tem. Its  prime  motto  is,  “ Do  nothing  for  the  child  which  he 
can  be  encouraged  to  do  for  himself.”  His  planning,  combin- 
ing, constructing  and  designing,  with  simplest  materials,  foster 


12 


OUR  SCHOOLS  AND  AGRICULTURE. 


interest  and  skill  in  work.  It  would  be  a grand  achievement  if 
the  Public  Schools  should  lead  our  youth  to  realize  that  their 
education  is  essentially  deficient  until  they  have  learned  to  work 
in  some  useful  form  of  industry.  Such  was  the  theory  and 
practice  of  the  ancient  Hebrews,  carrying  out  the  plan  given 
them  from  heaven.  That  is  plainly  the  Divine  plan  for  the 
race.  The  Hebrews  held  that  all  children  should  be  taught 
some  handicraft  as  an  essential  part  of  education.  Among 
them  labor  was  always  honorable.  Ho  man  was  ashamed  of 
his  trade.  Ho  matter  what  his  rank,  every  one  must  be  trained 
to  work.  The  chief  of  the  Apostles  did  not  degrade  his  high 
office  by  occasionally  resuming  his  trade  of  tent-maker.  By 
his  own  example,  he  enforced  his  precept,  “ if  any  would  not 
work,  neither  should  he  eat,”  and  sharpened  his  censure  of 
“ the  disorderly  busy-bodies  working  not  at  all.”  His  associates 
never  suspected  that  their  old  business  of  fishermen  was  disrep- 
utable. Why  was  it  that  the  Great  Teacher,  when  all  possi- 
bilities were  open  to  his  choice,  sought  out  the  humble  home  of 
the  carpenter  and  worked  patiently  at  His  reputed  father’s, 
trade,  except  that  He  might  condemn  before  the  world  the  un- 
christian and  heathenish  notion  that  labor  is  menial.  On  the 
other  hand,  the  Chinese  Mandarins  who  let  their  nails  grow  as. 
long  as  their  fingers,  to  show  that  they  never  work,  are  the 
illustrious  predecessors  of  the  pretentious  snobs  who  affect  to 
despise  the  industrial  arts. 

The  Jews  still  maintain  their  ancestral  pride  and  faith  in 
work,  notwithstanding  long  ages  of  bitter  persecution,  they 
are,  as  a race,  most  remarkable  for  perseverance,  energy  and 
ability.  These  manly  traits  have  been  fostered  by  their  heredi- 
tary habits  of  industry.  Debarred  by  oppressive  laws  for 
many  centuries  from  the  ownership  of  land,  and  from  the 
ordinary  industrial  pursuits,  they  were  driven  to  trade,  which 
naturally  continues  to  be  their  leading  occupation,  and  in 
which  they  have  gained  marked  success  by  dint  of  indomita- 
ble energy  in  the  face  of  opposition  and  manifold  difficulties. 
In  his  own  life  as  well  as  in  Endymion,  Beaconsfield  has  strongly 
illustrated  the  power  of  an  indomitable  will.  In  every  country,, 
where  the  civil  disabilities  which  oppressed  them  for  so  many 
centuries  have  been  removed,  the  Jews  have  soon  risen  to  be 


OUR  SCHOOLS  AND  AGRICULTURE. 


13 


leaders  in  education,  in  tlie  press,  in  finance,  in  science  and  lite- 
rature. Tlieir  wonderful  ability  and  success  seem  to  be  the 
secret  of  the  new  and  strange  outburst  of  medieval  intolerance 
and  hostility  which  now  disgraces  Germany.  The  real  trouble 
is,  that  the  Jews  so  often  outstrip  their  rivals  and  win  the  prizes 
which  are  open  to  fair  competition.  Complaints  made  in  late 
German  periodicals  fully  betray  this  unworthy  motive.  The 
outcry  is,  “ The  Jews  are  monopolizing  the  best  positions  in  the 
Universities,  absorbing  millions  of  money,  controlling  ex- 
change, becoming  our  leading  capitalists  and  even  crowding 
into  Parliament,  and  in  danger  of  moulding  the  destinies  of 
the  nation.” 

It  is  a redeeming  feature  of  this  outburst  of  narrowness 
that  the  Crown  Prince,  who  himself  once  thoroughly  learned 
a trade,  denounces  the  present  persecution  of  the  Jews  as 
“a  shame  to  Germany.”  No  man  in  Germany  has  done 
more  than  he  to  make  labor  reputable.  He  has  practiced 
as  well  as  preached  the  gospel  of  work,  having  early  learned 
the  cabinet-maker’s  trade.  At  Babelsberg,  near  Potsdam, 
the  summer  palace  of  the  Emperor  of  Germany,  are  shown 
choicest  articles  of  furniture  made  by  him.  When  his  only 
sister,  the  Grand  Duchess  of  Baden,  placed  her  daughter  in 
the  scfiloss , a famous  school  in  Carlsruhe,  she  directed  that 
she  should  be  excused  from  none  of  the  household  industries 
required  of  the  other  pupils,  that  she  should  be  trained  in 
sewing  and  knitting,  and  made  as  thorough  a seamstress  as  if 
she  were  expecting  to  earn  her  livelihood  by  her  needle. 
Such  royal  examples  of  honoring  industry  have  exerted  a 
vast  influence  throughout  the  German  Empire. 

The  tendency  on  the  farm  has  been  to  overwork  the  boys 
and  allow  too  little  respite  for  play,  for,  with  the  young  of  all 
animals,  play  is  the  dictate  of  nature.  The  earth,  the  air  and 
sea  are  full  of  animals  who  seem  to  luxuriate^  in  playful  activ- 
ity. But,  while  all  work  and  no  play  represses  the  jubilant  im- 
pulses of  childhood,  the  tendency  of  our  times  to  all  play  and 
no  work  is  far  more  harmful.  Excessive  amusements  dissipate 
the  mind,  weaken  the  will  and  demoralize  the  whole  character — 
making  one  restless,  selfish,  discontented  and  dependent.  The 
habitual  idler  naturally  degenerates  into  something  worse,  for 


14 


OUR  SCHOOLS  AND  AGRICULTURE. 


idleness  and  vice  are  twins.  Labor,  though  called  the  curse 
and  consequence  of  sin,  may  be  a blessing  to  beings  constituted 
as  we  are.  We  need  the  spur  of  necessity  to  energize  our 
minds.  Our  richest  thoughts  and  experience,  and  our  best  dis- 
cipline, come  to  us  when  we  are  intensely  active.  Toils  and 
privations  even,  give  strength,  endurance  and  courage  for 
future  achievements.  The  successful  merchant  who,  with  a 
fortune,  retires  from  business,  and  sits  down  to  enjoy  himself 
with  nothing  to  do  but  take  his  comfort,  becomes  the  victim  of 
ennui,  if  not  of  dyspepsia.  Industry  is  essential  to  thrift  and 
virtue,  to  mental,  moral  and  physical  health.  The  devil 
tempts  every  body,  but  the  idler  tempts  the  devil,  wdio  gives 
plenty  of  work  to  all  whom  he  can  find  with  nothing  to  do. 
The  historian  Froude  well  says,  “There  are  but  three  ways  of 
living ; by  working,  by  begging,  or  by  stealing ; those  who  do 
not  work,  disguise  it  in  whatever  pretty  language  we  please, 
are  doing  one  of  the  other  two.”  Every  man  should  have  one 
vocation,  and  as  many  avocations  as  he  can.  Men  of  mark  are 
men  of  work.  The  most  industrious  individuals  and  races  are 
the  most  intelligent  and  powerful ; the  most  elevated  morally 
as  well  as  mentally.  In  whatever  land  man  can  subsist  in  in- 
dolence, he  droops  in  intellect,  and  there  is  the  greatest  demor- 
alization in  those  tropical  climates  where  leisure  rather  than 
labor  is  the  rule  of  life.  Man  rises  in  the  scale  wdiere  his 
necessities  compel  constant  industry,  as  he  sinks  where  his 
wants  exact  no  labor.  Where  industry  becomes  habitual  and 
skillful,  it  not  only  supplies  mere  necessities,  but  stimulates 
demands  above  absolute  wants.  Every  pure  enjoyment  gained 
by  labor,  prompts  the  desire  for  other  and  higher  gratifications. 
Theodore  Parker  said,  “ The  fine  arts  do  not  interest  me  so 
much  as  the  coarse  arts,  wdiich  feed,  clothe,  house,  and  comfort  a 
people.  I should  rather  be  a great  man  as  Franklin,  than  a 
Michael  Angelo ; nay,  if  I had  a son,  I should  rather  see  him  a 
mechanic  who  organized  use,  like  the  late  George  Stephenson, 
in  England,  than  a great  painter  like  Pubens,  who  only  copied 
beauty.”  Edward  Forbes  says,  “ He  who  knows  not  what  it  is 
to  labor,  knows  not  what  it  is  to  enjoy.” 

I once  began  a census  of  the  eminent  men  of  Connecticut, 
those  who  have  been  most  successful  in  business,  or  in  the 


OUR  SCHOOLS  AND  AGRICULTURE. 


15 


various  professions,  and  found  that  the  great  majority  of  them 
had  the  discipline  of  rural  occupations  in  their  youth.  The 
successive  governors  of  our  State,  for  a long  time,  with  a 
single  exception,  were  early  accustomed  to  manual  labor.  The 
town  of  Lebanon  has  raised  up  five  governors.  Many  retired 
rural  districts  and  hill  towns  have  been  fertile  in  the  richest 
treasures  of  intellect.  The  Litchfield  County  Jubilee  showed 
a proud  array  of  her  sons  among  the  most  distinguished  men  of 
our  country.  On  the  other  hand,  those  wLlo  despised  labor  in 
their  youth  have  not  been  the  benefactors  of  the  community 
nor  of  themselves.  “ The  artificers  and  inventors  of  the 
world,  the  men  who  revolutionize  human  industry  and  mani- 
fold the  wealth  and  power  of  nations  by  new  machines  and 
new  processes  of  art — the  Watts,  the  Arkwrights,  the  Bra- 
mahs, the  Clements,  the  Nasmyths,  the  Stephensons,  the  Fair- 
bairns,  the  Fultons,  the  Ericsons,  the  Goodyears,  the  Howes, 
the  McCormicks,  have  usually  had  their  training  on  the  farm 
or  in  the  shops.” 

A striking  illustration  of  the  value  of  work  as  an  educator 
has  been  recently  furnished  by  Rev.  Washington  Gladden,  of 
Springfield.  He  sent  a circular  to  one  hundred  of  the  most 
prominent  men  of  that  place,  asking,  “ Was  your  home  during 
the  first  fifteen  years  of  your  life  on  the  farm  or  in  the  city, 
and  were  you  then  accustomed  to  work  when  not  in  school  ?” 
Of  the  eighty-eight  who  replied,  five  only  “ had  nothing  par- 
ticular to  do,”  while  ninety-four  per  cent,  were  farmers’  sons, 
or  hard  working  boys.  So  everywhere,  as  he  clearly  shows, 
the  prizes  of  life  are  carried  off  by  the  men  who  learned  to 
work.  Men  energized  by  such  discipline  are  sure  to  outstrip 
those  who  were  dandled  in  the  lap  of  affluence  and  enervated 
by  excessive  indulgence.  The  farmer’s  boy  learns  patience  and 
persistence  by  doing  tough  tasks  without  flinching.  Mr.  Glad- 
den’s conclusion  from  his  inquiry  was,  that  the  boy  early 
trained  to  work  has  eighteen  chances  of  succeeding  in  life  to 
one  chance  for  the  boy  without  this  discipline. 

k arm  work,  by  the  great  variety  of  its  forms  and  conditions, 
is  peculiarly  fitted  to  task  and  test  the  mind  of  a boy  in  plan- 
ning, contriving  apd  adapting  means  to  ends  under  constantly 
varying  circumstances.  The  necessities  of  the  farm  teach  the 


16 


OUR  SCHOOLS  AND  AGRICULTURE. 


needful  lesson  that  “ where  there  is  a will  there  is  a way.” 
Coleridge  said,  “ A perfectly  educated  character  is  little  else 
than  a perfectly  disciplined  will.”  The  will  is  by  no  means 
the  only  faculty  to  be  educated,  but  its  right  culture  involves 
that  of  every  other  faculty  of  the  mind  and  heart.  It  is  the 
will  that  differentiates  men.  This  is  the  regal  power  of  the 
mind,  and  more  than  any  thing  in  our  intellectual  nature  con- 
stitutes the  man.  A disciplined  will  equips  the  mind  for  ac- 
tion. An  earnest  will  is  the  agent  of  every  great  achievement. 
There  is  nothing  like  it  to  make  the  mind  resolute  and  success- 
ful, loyal  to  duty,  superior  to  doubt,  disdainful  of  ease,  delight- 
ing in  achievement,  and  rendering  toil,  self-denial,  exertions  in 
whatever  form,  easy  and  pleasant.  A resolute  mind  will  scorn 
sloth,  love  labor,  spare  no  effort,  neglect  no  opportunity  to 
accomplish  its  end. 

Labor  develops  inventive  talent.  The  exigences  of  the 
farmer,  remote  from  villages  and  shops,  compel  him  to  be 
something  of  a carpenter,  joiner,  blacksmith  and  harness- 
maker — a man  of  all  work — “ handy  at  anything.”  His  busi- 
ness varies  with  the  seasons  and  sometimes  changes  every  day. 
A farmer’s  boy  myself,  early  trained  in  practical  industry  and 
familiar  with  farm  work,  I have  ever  valued  highly  those  prac- 
tical lessons  learned  among  the  rough  hills  of  grand  old  Litch- 
field County. 

I counsel  even  the  sons  of  affluence  to  spend  at  least  one 
season  at  hard  work  on  the  farm  or  in  the  shop.  The  practical 
business  drill  there  gained,  the  knowledge  of  nature  and 
domestic  animals,  will  amply  compensate  for  the  consequent 
loss  in  book  learning,  to  say  nothing  of  the  health  and  physical 
training  thus  secured.  With  all  our  improved  gymnastics, 
none  is  better  than  manual  labor,  when  it  is  cheerfully  and  in- 
telligently performed,  and  especially  farm  work.  The  habits 
of  industry,  once  formed  on  the  farm,  or  in  the  shop,  may 
shape  all  the  future,  teaching  one  to  value  time,  to  husband  the 
odd  moments,  and  to  practice  diligence  in  business. 

The  pupils  who  luxuriate  in  the  wealthiest  homes  of  the 
city  would  profit  by  one  year  in  the  country  with  its  peculiar 
work  and  play,  its  freer  sports  and  wider  range  for  rambles  by 
the  springs  and  brooks,  the  rivers  and  waterfalls,  the  ponds  and 


OUR  SCHOOLS  AND  AGRICULTURE. 


17 


lakes,  over  the  hills  and  planes,  through  the  groves  and  forests ; 
in  observing  nature,  searching  for  wild  flowers  and  curious 
stones,  learning  to  recognize  the  different  trees  by  any  one  of 
their  distinctive  marks,  viz.,  the  leaf,  flower,  fruit,  form,  bark 
and  grain,  watching  the  ant-hills,  collecting  butterflies  and  vari- 
ous insects,  noticing  the  birds  so  as  to  distinguish  them  by 
their  beaks  or  claws,  their  size,  form,  plumage,  flight  or  song. 
Studying  nature  in  any  one  or  more  of  these  varied  forms, 
each  so  fitted  to  charm  children,  would  refresh  their  minds  as 
well  as  re-create  their  bodies. 

The  simple  elements  of  the  practical  sciences  should  be 
taught  in  our  schools,  at  least  in  oral  lessons.  A few  talks  on 
Agricultural  Chemistry,  will  invite  its  fuller  study  when  the 
school  days  are  ended,  especially  in  observing  the  chemical 
marvels  that  will  meet  one  on  every  rod  of  his  farm.  The 
lectures  given  in  our  Teachers’  Institutes  on  the  geological 
characteristics  of  Connecticut,  show  how  profitably  our  teach- 
ers might  each  give  simple  lessons  on  the  prominent  physical 
features  of  his  town,  county  and  State.  Such  talks  will  inten- 
sify the  interest  of  the  farmers’  boys  in  the  study  of  the  stones 
and  rocks  which  line  their  pathway.  Specimens  of  our  most 
common  minerals  ought  to  be  in  all  our  schools,  procurable  as 
they  are  by  any  competent  teacher,  without  cost.  Ho  pupil 
should  leave  the  Public  School  without  knowing  the  names 
and  leading  characteristics  of  at  least  a dozen  of  our  common 
minerals. 

Familiar  lessons  should  also  be  given  about  plants  and 
animals,  the  laws  of  health  and  animal  physiology.  A few 
hints  on  “how  plants  grow,”  will  add  interest  to  the  flora 
found  in  such  great  varieties  on  every  farm.  With  specimens 
in  hand,  a few  minutes  devoted  to  pointing  out  the  difference 
between  inside  growers  and  outside  growers  (saying  nothing  of 
endogens  and  exogens)  or  between  parallel-veined  and  net- 
veined  leaves,  or  the  evergreens  and  those  trees  which  drop 
their  leaves  annually,  will  awaken  a lasting  interest  in  the 
study  of  Botany.  How  early  children  may  learn  the  differ- 
ence between  the  animal,  vegetable  and  mineral  kingdoms,  or 
that  some  animals  have  jointed  back  bones,  that  others  have 
their  bones  outside  of  their  bodies,  while  others  have  none  at 


18 


OUR  SCHOOLS  AND  AGRICULTURE. 


all.  Sncli  glimpses  of  the  beauties  and  wonders  of  science 
awaken  a healthful  desire  to  observe  and  study.  I remember 
well  the  interest  awakened  at  a Teachers’  Institute  in  Massa- 
chusetts, when  Prof.  Agassiz  gave  a lecture  on  the  grasshopper. 
Having  by  the  aid  of  the  boys  collected  several  hundred  grass- 
hoppers and  etherized  them  so  that  they  would  not  jump 
about,  he  passed  one  to  each  of  his  auditors.  This  created 
general  laughter  and  seemed  ridiculous  to  many.  But  soon, 
instead  of  laughing  at  or  looking  at  him,  every  one  was  looking 
intently  at  the  object  in  hand.  When  lie  pointed  out  minute 
parts  some  one  said,  “ Can’t  see  them to  which  he  replied, 
“ Look  again  and  learn  to  look , for  I can  see  things  ten  times 
smaller  than  those  to  which  I have  called  your  attention.  The 
power  of  the  human  eye  is  very  great,  and  it  is  only  the  want 
of  practice  which  sets  such  narrow  limits  to  its  powers.  By 
learning  how  to  examine  one  thing  thoroughly,  you  learn  how 
to  see  any  thing.  I present  this  subject  to  you,  teachers,  for 
the  purpose  of  suggesting  the  desirableness  and  method  of 
teaching  Natural  History  in  schools,  and  of  using  that  instruc- 
tion as  a means  of  developing  the  juvenile  faculties  and  lead- 
ing them  to  the  knowledge  of  the  Creator.” 

If  you  ask  where  can  teachers  be  found  competent  to  give 
such  lessons,  I invite  you  to  visit  our  Normal  School  and 
observe  how  well  its  pupils  are  trained  in  the  methods  of 
teaching  the  elements  of  the  practical  sciences  in  our  schools, 
and  I ask  the  cooperation  of  the  farmers  in  securing  better 
qualified  teachers  for  their  children. 

By  leading  children  to  plant  flowers,  shrubs  and  trees  in 
the  school  grounds,  as  well  as  around  the  homestead,  and  by 
brief  lessons  on  rural  art,  and  especially  on  the  beauty,  variety 
and  value  of  trees,  such  an  interest  in  their  study  and  culture 
might  be  awakened  as  to  make  our  youth  practical  arborists. 
Very  little  time  would  be  required  for  those  talks  which  would 
be  sure  to  inspire  an  interest  in  arboriculture  and  in  the 
broader  subject  of  rural  art  and  adornment.  In  this  way  our 
Public  Schools  may  prove  a partial  substitute  for  the  schools  of 
Forestry  in  Germany  and  other  European  countries,  wdiich 
have  exerted  there  a remarkable  influence  in  diffusing  a general 
interest  in  arboriculture  among  the  people.  They  regard  for- 


OUR  SCHOOLS  AND  AGRICULTURE. 


19 


ests  as  their  friends,  and  understand  their  climatic  influence  and 
economic  value  in  staying  spring  torrents,  preventing  summer 
droughts  as  well  as  in  supplying  lumber  and  fuel.  The  Ger- 
mans have  a passion  for  nature,  and  love  to  frequent  their 
beautiful  groves  and  gardens,  for  parks  and  woods  abound  in 
and  near  their  cities  and  towns.  The  rural  and  suburban 
adornment,  now  the  pride  and  glory  of  so  many  beautiful 
towns  in  Germany,  and  the  fruit  of  this  revived  love  of  arbori- 
culture, is  largely  due  to  the  influence  and  literature  which 
have  emanated  from  her  schools  of  Forestry.  Hence  a deep 
and  general  interest  has  been  awakened  in  trees  and  forests  and 
the  wanton  forest  fires  so  common  and  destructive  in  America 
are  comparatively  unknown  in  Germany.  The  forest  incendiary 
would  be  regarded  as  a common  enemy,  like  the  poisoner  of  an 
aqueduct,  recklessly  destroying  that  which  it  is  the  interest  of 
all  to  preserve.  Like  their  Forest  Schools,  our  Public  Schools 
should  create  that  healthful  public  sentiment  which  constitutes 
the  best  possible  protection  of  the  woods. 

In  connection  with  the  Sheffield  Scientific  School,  which  by 
the  act  of  the  Legislature  in  1863  became  the  College  of  Agri- 
culture and  the  Mechanic  Arts  of  Connecticut,  the  endow- 
ment of  one  or  two  additional  professorships  would  inaugurate 
a Department  of.  Forestry.  This  could  be  done  the  more 
economically  here,  where  the  existing  cabinets,  laboratories 
and  philosophical  apparatus  might  be  utilized  in  forestral  in- 
struction. The  endowment  of  such  a department  would 
prove  a great  benefaction  to  the  State  and  to  the  country, 
opening  new  fields  of  investigation  which  would  bear  directly 
on  the  ultimate  resources  and  permanent  prosperity  of  the 
nation.  The  conclusions  of  foreign  foresters,  though  con- 
firmed by  the  broadest  observations  and  experience  in  Europe, 
cannot  all  be  wisely  adopted  in  American  Sylviculture.  Dif- 
ferences in  soil,  climate  and  other  conditions,  may  affect  trees 
in  regard  to  rapidity  of  growth,  health,  durability  of  timber, 
texture,  elasticity  and  grain  of  the  wood  and  many  other  qual- 
ities. These  vital  questions  can  be  determined  only  by  careful 
investigations  carried  on  in  each  country. 

The  Lombardy  poplar,  for  example,  was  planted  extensively 
in  Hew  England  many  years  ago.  Brought  to  England  from 


20 


OUR  SCHOOLS  AND  AGRICULTURE. 


the  banks  of  the  Po  in  1758,  the  facility  of  its  propagation  from 
cuttings,  its  rapid  growth,  its  tall  columnar  outline  in  contrast 
with  the  spreading  oaks  and  elms,  soon  made  it  a favorite  in 
England,  hence  with  the  fathers  of  New  England.  Sending 
out  its  almost  upright  branches  all  along  its  tall  stem,  it  was 
much  admired  here,  as  it  is  still  by  the  Italians  and  was  of  old 
by  the  Romans,  who  called  it  the  arbor  populi.  But  in  New 
England  so  many  of  its  branches  winter-killed  that  it  soon 
became  an  unsightly  collection  of  dead  limbs,  and  it  is  now 
seldom  seen.  This  is  one  of  many  illustrations  of  the  necessity 
of  adaptation  to  soil  and  climate,  and  of  the  fact  that  some 
trees  which  thrive  in  one  locality  will  fail  in  another. 

More  than  those  of  other  workmen,  the  farmer’s  business 
binds  him  to  his  home.  He  lives  on  or  near-  the  soil  he  tills. 
Hence  the  farmer’s  home  must  often  be  somewhat  isolated. 
To  promote  sociality  and  content,  Col.  Waring  proposes  that 
farmers  should  concentrate  in  villages,  and  for  this  purpose 
submit  to  the  necessity  of  long  daily  journeys  to  their  farms. 
This  is  unfortunately  the  European  usage.  There  the  cottages 
of  the  peasants  are  often  crowded  together  more  closely  than  are 
the  homes  in  any  well  laid-out  city,  leaving  scant  room  for  out- 
buildings, to  say  nothing  of  gardens.  This  custom  grew  out  of 
the  necessities  of  a barbarous  age  as  a protection  from  robbers, 
or  out  of  that  feudal  system  under  which  the  serfs  were  crowded 
into  huts  under  the  castle  walls  of  their  lord  or  chief. 

The  very  isolation  of  the  American  farmer  is  one  source  of 
his  conscious  individuality,  independence  and  strength,  when 
he  is  thus  led  to  greater  care  and  taste  in  adorning  his  home 
and  grounds  and  increasing  the  attractions  of  the  fireside.  It 
has  long  been  my  ambition  to  improve  the  homes  and  home- 
life  of  our  farmers,  and  of  all  our  industrial  classes,  and  help 
them  realize  that  the  highest  privilege  and  central  duty  of  life 
is  the  creation  of  happy  homes.  The  chief  aim  of  the  indus- 
tries of  life,  whether  agricultural,  manufacturing  or  commer- 
cial, and  the  great  end  for  which  government  itself  is  worthy 
to  be  maintained,  is  that  men  may  live  in  happy  homes.  u The 
hope  of  America  is  the  homes  of  America,”  and  the  hope  of 
Connecticut  is  the  homes  of  Connecticut.  You  improve  the 
schools  by  improving  the  homes  as  truly  as  you  improve  the 


OUR  SCHOOLS  AND  AGRICULTURE. 


21 


homes  by  improving  the  schools.  Modem  civilization  relates 
especially  to  the  homes  and  social  life  of  the  people,  to  their 
health,  comfort,  thrift,  their  intellectual  and  moral  advance- 
ment. In  earlier  times  and  other  lands,  men  were  counted  in 
the  aggregate.  They  were  valued  as  they  helped  to  swell  the 
revenues  or  retinues  of  kings  and  nobles.  The  government 
was  the  unit,  and  each  individual  only  added  one  to  the  roll  of 
serfs  or  soldiers.  With  us  the  individual  is  the  unit,  and  the 
government  is  of  the  people  and  for  the  people  and  by  the 
people.  America  may  be  brought  to  be  the  paradise  of  the 
laborer  in  the  neatness,  comforts,  amenities  and  attractions  of  his 
home.  In  no  other  way  can  the  best  interests  of  this  nation 
be  more  surely  promoted  than  by  the  elevation  and  ennobling  of 
its  home  life,  and  no  agency  can  contibute  to  this  grand  achieve- 
ment so  universally  and  effectually  as  our  public  schools. 


[Since  the  foregoing  was  in  type,  I have  received  a paper 
from  M.  H.  Buckhan,  President  of  the  University  of  Ver- 
mont, on  the  question,  “What  kind  of  an  education  shall 
we  give  those  of  our  children  who  are  going  to  be  farmers,” 
which  is  so  sound,  practical  and  suggestive  as  to  well  merit 
re-printing  entire  in  this  connection.  My  limits  will  permit 
only  the  following  condensed  summary  of  its  leading  thoughts.] 

I shall  ask  and  answer  the  question  as  though  it  was  a personal 
concern  of  my  own  : “ What  sort  of  an  education  shall  I give 

to  a child  of  mine  who  is  going  to  be  a farmer  ?”  So  you  will 
get  my  best  and  sincerest  thoughts  on  the  subject.  I will 
suppose  that  I have  a boy  who  is  going  to  be  a farmer,  calling 
him  George,  which  is  a good  farmer’s  name,  inasmuch  as  the 
word  itself  means  farmer.  The  question  then  is,  how  shall  I 
educate  George?  Uow,  although  I should  very  much  like  to 
have  one  of  my  boys  become  a farmer,  because  I believe  that  a 
farmer’s  life  may  be  as  honorable,  happy  and  useful  as  any  life, 
I have  no  means  of  knowing  that  George  will  actually  be  a 
farmer.  I have  no  right  arbitrarily  to  choose  my  boys’  occupa- 
tions for  them  any  more  than  I have  to  choose  their  wives  for 
them.  The  system  of  caste  which  requires  that  every  boy 
should  follow  his  father’s  occupation,  is  tyrannous  and  cruel. 
But  in  this  free  age  and  land,  one  of  the  best  opportunities  a 
young  man  has  is  the  opportunity  of  freely  choosing  his  own 
calling  among  all  those  open  to  honorable  ambition.  A good 


22 


OUR  SCHOOLS  AND  AGRICULTURE. 


deal  is  said  against  academies  and  colleges  on  the  ground  that 
they  “ educate  young  men  away  from  the  farm.”  I know  a 
man  who  says  : “I  want  my  boy  to  be  a farmer.  If  I send  him 
off  to  school,  he  will  get  weaned  from  the  farm  and  go  into 
some  profession.  I will  give  him  just  a good  common  school 
education ; that  is  all  that  a farmer  needs.  Then  he  will  stay 
at  home  and  be  a farmer.”  But  one  of  the  rights  which  God 
gave  that  boy  was  the  right  to  make  the  most  of  himself  in  any 
sphere  of  life  which  he  might  freely  choose.  And  yet  the  father, 
who  ought  to  be  his  best  helper,  robs  him  of  that  right,  and 
says,  virtually,  “ I will  fix  it  so  that  he  will  never  have  a chance 
to  choose  any  calling  and  will  never  know  that  the  chance 
was  taken  awTay  from  him.”  Why,  if  all  farmers’  sons  were  to 
become  farmers,  what  would  become  of  the  professions,  and  of 
the  world  \ Go  through  all  the  callings  of  life  and  pick  out  the 
most  capable  men  in  them,  the  greatest  lawyers,  statesmen, 
preachers,  physicians,  teachers,  inventors,  the  men  who  are 
doing  the  greatest  service  to  mankind,  and  you  will  find  that 
the  great  majority  of  them  came  from  the  farm.  Young  men 
are  constantly  going  from  the  farm  to  carry  fresh  vigor  into 
other  vocations,  and  others  are  constantly  coming  back  from 
the  professions  to  renew  their  exhausted  vitality  by  restoring 
their  connection  with  old  mother  earth.  It  is  a strange  thing 
to  say,  but  I really  think  it  needs  to  be  said  to  the  fathers — 
though  perhaps  not  to  the  mothers : “ Don’t  be  jealous  of 

your  boys : don’t  grudge  them  a chance  to  rise ; give  them  an 
opportunity  to  be  something  besides  farmers  if  they  want  to  be.’* 
But  George  says  he  wants  to  be  a farmer — just  as  Willie  has 
decided  to  be  a lawyer,  Tom  a physician,  and  Jack  a locomotive 
engineer.  George  is  only  a boy.  His  notion  of  being  a farmer 
is  only  a little  boy’s  fancy.  He  may  change  his  mind  many 
times  before  he  becomes  a man.  The  smallest  possible  reason 
for  fixing  a man’s  career  is  a boy’s  whim — and  any  preference 
of  a boy  of  ten  or  twelve  can  be  little  more  than  a whim.  But 
cannot  a wise  parent  or  teacher  discover  a boy’s  talents^  and 
aptitudes  and  so  reveal  to  him  the  career  for  which  he  is  fitted 
and  persuade  him  to  follow  it  ? I answer,  only  in  the  case  of 
some  very  remarkable  boy  who,  like  Pascal  or  Mozart,  early 
shows  the  unmistakable  call  of  Providence  in  very  marked 
talents.  The  ordinary  boy’s  capacities  do  not  appear  until  edu- 
cation has  brought  them  out,  and  often  not  even  then,  not 
until  practical  life  has  tested  them.  George  may  be  a farmer, 
but  he  may  not  be.  For  the  present,  then,  it  is  very  plain  that 
I must  not  educate  him  as  though  I knew  he  was  going  to  be 
a farmer,  except  so  far  as  that  education  would  be  equally  good 
for  any  other  calling.  But  fortunately  the  groundwork  and  rudi- 
ments of  all  education  are  the  same.  I will,  then,  give  him  a 


OUE  SCHOOLS  AND  AGRICULTURE. 


23 


good  elementary  education.  Now  that  means  a good  deal. 
Very  few  boys  get  a good  elementary  education. 

Shall  I send  my  hoy  to  the  public  schools,  where  I cannot 
have  my  way  about  his  studies,  or  shall  I if  I am  able,  put  him 
in  a private  school  where  I can,  to  some  extent,  prescribe  the 
course  he  shall  pursue?  I will  put  George  into  the  public 
schools  on  account  of  the  healthful  stimulus  which  publicity 
and  free  competition  gives  to  the  schools,  but  I will  use  my 
utmost  influence  to  make  them  as  good  as  they  can  be  made.  I 
will,  so  far  as  I am  able,  see  to  it  that  the  buildings,  the  furni- 
ture, the  apparatus,  and  above  all  the  teachers  are  the  best  that 
my  district,  my  village  or  town  can  be  persuaded  to  provide.  I 
will  tax  myself  and  do  my  utmost  to  persuade  my  neighbors  to 
tax  themselves  enough  to  maintain  the  very  best  school  we  can 
afford. 

But  George’s  education  does  not  depend  on  the  school  alone. 
It  is  very  important  that  he  should  form  the  habit  of  reading 
good  books.  But  I cannot  afford  to  buy  him  all  the  books  he 
will  need ; he  must  have  access  to  a good  library.  I must  there- 
fore stir  up  my  neighbors  to  start  a village  or  town  library.  I 
will  take  good  sterling  newspapers,  both  religious  and  secular. 

Now,  if  I have  done  my  duty  and  he  has  done  his,  at  fifteen 
years  of  age,  the  boy  has  got  an  education  which  is  not  to  be 
despised.  If  he  makes  the  most  of  it  hereafter,  extending  his 
information  by  reading,  using  his  opportunities  to  profit  by 
intercourse  with  superior  men,  above  all  putting  thought  and 
plan  into  his  business,  and  so  being  constantly  educated  by  it, 
he  may  become  a man  of  fair  intelligence,  competent  to  do  the 
duties  of  a man  in  the  humbler  walks  of  life.  If  he  have 
unusual  native  power  of  mind,  he  may  do  much  more  than  this. 
Such  a mind  will  often  burst  through  the  limits  which  beset 
half -trained  minds  of  ordinary  capacity  and  find  or  make  itself 
a way  to  knowledge  and  power.  These  are  the  few  cases  which 
mislead  the  popular  judgment.'  Because  here  and  there  one, 
rarely  gifted,  most  rarely  gifted  with  that  indomitable  perse- 
verance which  makes  light  of  toils  which  would  kill  ordinary 
men,  rises  to  eminence  without  the  direct  help  of  academies 
and  colleges,  it  is  inferred  that  ordinary  men,  of  average  talents, 
with  moderate  education,  may  do  the  same.  But  George  is  an 
ordinary  boy.  The  question  now  is,  shall  he  go  on  with  his  edu- 
cation ? shall  he  go  for  some  years  to  the  high  school  or  academy  ? 
The  result  of  much  thought  on  that  question  is,  he  shall  go,  if 
I can  afford  it.  I will  scrimp,  if  I must,  somewhere  else,  not 
here.  I will  get  up  an  hour  earlier  or  work  an  hour  later  at 
night,  if  I must,  so  that  George  may  have  a good  education. 

Of  course  all  farmers  cannot  be  thoroughly  educated  men. 
In  the  present  state  of  things  few  can  aspire  to  that  luxury. 


24 


OUR  SCHOOLS  AND  AGRICULTURE. 


So  far  as  concerns  the  great  mass  of  farmers’  sons  my  work  is 
mainly  done  in  urging  them  up  to  a good  elementary  and 
English  high  school  education.  I should  like  to  have  George 
become  a thoroughly  educated  man,  farmer  or  no  farmer,  and 
if  a good  deal  of  exertion  and  sacrifice  on  my  part  will  make 
that  possible,  he  shall  be.  But  most  lives  are  subjected  to 
limitations.  If  the  way  to  that  seems  to  be  shut  against 
him,  he  must  make  the  most  of  the  opportunities  Providence 
gives  him,  and  even  so  may  enjoy  a great  many  of  the  pleasures 
and  gains  which  only  the  highly  educated  man  enjoys  in  the 
fullest  measure. 

It  is  not  necessary  now  to  go  on  and  discuss  the  question 
whether  George  shall  go  to  college,  because  the  principles  al- 
ready settled  in  my  own  mind  will  lead  me  to  desire  that  he 
should  go,  if  circumstances  permit.  I refuse  to  allow  that  the 
probability  of  his  being  a farmer  will  make  any  difference  in 
the  question.  I can  see  no  good  reason  why  I should  favor  the 
boy  who  is  going  to  be  a lawyer  or  a physician,  over  his  brother 
who  is  going  to  be  a farmer,  by  sending  the  one  to  college  and 
not  the  other.  It  would  be  just  as  unfair  as  to  leave  twice  as 
much  of  my  property  to  the  one  as  the  other.  The  farmer 
needs  the  education  as  much,  and  can  make  as  good  use  of  it, 
as  the  lawyer.  I admit  that  the  probability  of  his  actually  be- 
coming a farmer  grows  less  the  more  education  you  give  him, 
and  that  simply  because  his  education  has  given  him  the  power 
to  gain  more  of  the  desirable  things  of  life  with  less  work  in 
some  other  wray  than  by  farming.  But  as  the  professions  be- 
come more  crowded,  and  competition  growls  fiercer,  and  as 
farming  becomes  less  an  operation  of  mere  manual  labor,  and 
more  one  of  skill  and  contrivance,  more  educated  men  will  be 
attracted  to  agriculture,  and  education  will  become  more  and. 
more  the  road  to  success  and  enjoyment  in  this  as  in  all  other 
pursuits. 

My  general  principle  is  this,  theft  before  we  come  to  the 
special  education  which  shall  fit  one  to  become  a farmer,  a prq-; 
fessional  man,  or  whatever  else,  we  will  give  him  as  extend 
and  liberal  an  education  as  the  circumstances  will  admit ; 
more,  the  better;  the  more  thorough  and  scholarly, the  bet  ,is 
the  more  varied,  the  better,  provided  each  part  be  thoroug  ’ 
the  more  extended,  the  better,  certainly  up  to  the  time  of  his 
majority,  or  even  a year  or  two  beyond.  How  much  education 
it  is  in  the  power  of  a farmer  to  give  to  his  boys,  will  depend 
on  how  high  a value  he  sets  on  education,  and  how  ambitious 
they  are  to  get  it.  If  from  that  small,  stony  New  Hampshire 
farm,  Ezekiel  and  Daniel  Webster  could  find  their  way  to 
college,  the  same  faith  and  heroism  in  father  and  mother  and 
boys,  could  make  the  way  to  college  possible — it  is  not  neces- 
sary that  it  be  made  easy — from  almost  any  farm. 


OUR  SCHOOLS  AND  AGRICULTURE. 


25 


But  has  George  done  nothing  but  study  all  these  years  ? Has 
his  life  been  all  books,  books,  study,  study,  and  nothing  else  ? 
Not  so,  if  I am  a wise  father.  The  number  of  hours  in  a day, 
the  number  of  days  in  a year,  that  can  be  profitably  devoted  to 
pure  mental  activity,  without  exhaustion  to  the  mind  and  a 
strain  upon  the  body,  are  fewer  than  we  think  them  to  be  : sit 
down  and  calculate  them,  and  see  how  large  a margin  we  have 
left  for  other  occupations.  And  besides-,  an  important  part  of 
education  has  to  do  with  matters  that  books  and  school  teachers 
have  no  concern  with,  the  training  of  eye,  ear,  hand,  muscles ; 
the  development  of  the  body  to  strength  and  agility  ; acquiring 
knowledge  of  common  things,  and  getting,  little  by  little,  com- 
mon sense ; in  short,  that  education  by  work,  and  experience, 
and  responsibility,  through  which  boys  become  vigorous,  know- 
ing, capable  in  practical  affairs.  Now  in  this  part  of  education 
* farmers  have  a great  advantage  over  most  others  in  the  man- 
agement of  their  boys.  There  is  always  something  at  hand  for 
boys  to  do  in  the  time  not  required  for  study.  A farmer’s  boy 
learns  to  be  industrious,  handy,  thrifty  ; he  gets  a vast  amount 
of  knowledge  by  dealing  with  stones,  trees,  horses,  cattle,  birds, 
bees,  grasses,  grains,  fruits,  wind,  weather,  country  stores,  ped- 
dlers ; he  has  a thousand  opportunites  for  getting  varied 
knowledge  which  the  village  boy  lacks.  He  has  work  entrusted 
to  him,  and  gets  independence  and  manliness  through  the  sense 
of  responsibility. 

I am  thoroughly  convinced  that  every  boy  should  be  trained 
to  some  kind  of  industry — I do  not  mean  a mere  amateur,  half- 
work,  half-play  kind  of  employment,  but  to  some  one  of  the 
great,  necessary,  bread-winning  industries  of  mankind.  Good 
health,  good  habits,  right  notions  of  life,  can  be  secured  to  boys 
so  effectually  in  no  other  way.  The  notion  which  village  boys 
are  getting,  that  going  to  school  five  hours  a day,  for  five  days 
in  the  week,  for  nine  months  in  the  year,  exempts  them  from 
work  for  all  the  rest  of  the  timg,  breeds  habits  of  idleness  and  self- 
‘ndulgence,  which  result  in  wasted  and  vicious  lives.  How  to 
o’  e to  village  boys  the  employment  which  they  need,  is  a hard 
\ >lem,  which  is  now  occupying  the  attention  of  thoughtful 
:1  . But  fortunately  for  you,  it  is  not  your  problem.  The 
h\  mces  are  all  in  your  favor  that  your  boy  will  learn  industry, 
economy,  the  value  of  time,  and  most  of  the  essential,  if  homely, 
virtues,  through  the  experiences  of  life  on  the  farm. 

But  sooner  or  later  George  must  make  his  choice  of  a calling, 
and  we  will  assume  that  he  chooses  to  be  a farmer.  He  has 
good  reasons  for  his  choice,  and  he  chooses  for  those  reasons, 
and  not  from  necessity  or  whim.  Because  farming  is  an  active, 
out-door,  healthful  employment ; because  it  is  an  honorable  and 
useful  calling ; because  it  insures  a competency  and  holds  out 


26 


OUR  SCHOOLS  AND  AGRICULTURE. 


the  prospect  of  a moderate  and  comfortable  degree  of  wealth  ; 
and  because  it  gives  opportunity  for  the  exercise  of  all  the 
virtues,  the  cultivation  of  all  the  graces  and  the  enjoyment  of 
all  the  substantial  comforts  of  life — he  deliberately  makes  up 
his  mind  to  be  a farmer.  He  has  already  done  much  in  the 
way  of  preparation  for  his  life  work.  He  has  got  considerable 
training  of  muscles,  of  sense,  of  mind.  And  now,  just  as  a 
well-educated  young  man  turns  his  attention  to  the  law,  or  to 
medicine,  or  divinity,  he  applies  himself  to  the  study  of  agri- 
culture. He  is  not  intending  to  he  a gentleman  farmer,  but  is 
going  into  the  business  for  the  purpose  of  making  a living. 
W hat,  then,  shall  his  special  education  for  farming  be  ? 

Agriculture  though  not  a science,  but  an  art,  is  surrounded 
by  sciences  which  throw  light  upon  it.  And  if  we  might  call 
an  art  liberal  in  proportion  to  its  affiliation  to  science,  then  agri- 
culture is  the  most  liberal  of  all  the  arts,  for  it  is  allied  to  more 
sciences  than  any  other.  Step  out  upon  your  land  and  pick  up 
a handful  of  soil,  and  before  you  can  answer  all  the  questions 
which  that  soil  puts  to  you,  you  must  know  something  of  Min- 
eralogy, and  Organic  and  Inorganic  Chemistry.  Stoop  down 
and  detach  a single  blade  of  grass  with  its  roots,  and  you  have  in 
your  hand  all  the  essential  data  of  the  problem  which  that  most 
interesting  and  wonderful  science  of  Botany  is  called  to  solve. 
Crawling  about  under  your  feet,  humming  around  your  ears, 
infesting  the  plant  you  have  in  your  hand,  disputing  with  you 
the  possession  of  the  air  you  are  about  to  take  into  your  lungs, 
are  living  creatures  whose  structure,  habits  and  relations  to 
other  organic  life  form  the  science  of  Entomology,  which  is 
only  one  department  of  the  vast  science  of  Zoology,  which 
treats  of  all  animate  beings  on  the  earth  and  in  the  air  and  in 
the  sea.  Every  plant  that  grows  on  your  farm,  every  animal 
in  the  stock-yard,  every  bird  and  insect  that  hovers  in  the  air, 
every  implement  of  husbandry,  every  road,  fence,  drain,  farm- 
building, every  running  stream,  swamp,  muck-bed,  forest,  every ' 
change  of  temperature,  rain  storm,  drought,  every  bare  rr 
upheaved  to  the  sun — everything,  in  short,  that  the  farmer' 
rests  upon  or  his  ear  hears  as  he  looks  and  listens  by  da\ 
night,  represents  to  him  a science  which  lies  very  dost 
wTork  and  which  it  is  his  interest  to  know.  Indeed,  it 
be  difficult  to  name  a science  in  all  the  circle  of  them,  w^ 
does  not  bear,  immediately  or  remotely,  on  agriculture.  George 
has  learned  something  of  these  sciences  in  his  general  training, 
but  he  pursues  them  now  not  for  the  purposes  of  training  but 
for  knowledge.  He  has  learned  the  fundamental  principles  of 
Chemistry,  Botany  and  Physiology ; he  should  now  pursue 
them  into  those  details  which  touch  the  operations  of-  farming. 
He  studies  Chemistry  as  related  to  soils  and  the  food  of  plants  ; 


OUR  SCHOOLS  AND  AGRICULTURE. 


27 


Botany  as  related  to  seeds,  growth,  propagation,  hybridizing, 
grafting,  irrigating,  pruning ; Physiology  as  related  to  the 
care  and  feeding  of  animals,  breeding,  fattening.  His  studies 
must  now  he  real,  connected  with  actual  things,  not  mere 
pictures  and  illustrations  of  things. 

But  where  shall  George  learn  th z practical  part  of  farming? 
Certainly  not  from  books  or  lectures  or  from  any  instructions 
of  men  themselves  inexperienced,  hut  on  the  farm,  in  the 
actual  operations  of  bona  fide  farming.  Experimental  farming, 
amateur  farming,  fancy  farming  are  all  instructive,  and  I should 
wish  to  have  George  keep  a shrewd  eye  on  all  innovations  and 
be  ready  to  learn  the  lesson  which  they  have  to  teach.  But 
the  kind  of  farming  from  which  a boy  learns  most  is  farming 
pursued  as  a business,  and  for  the  purpose  of  making  a living. 
When  George  has  finished  his  scientific  studies,  or  while  he  is 
pursuing  them  if  it  can  be  arranged  that  he  can  study  winters 
and  work  summers,  I should  like  to  put  him  to  work  on  some 
well  managed  farm,  where  he  will  see  and  share  in  all  the  ope- 
rations of  a diversified  agriculture.  This  is  the  practice  pur- 
sued in  some  parts  of  the  world  where  agriculture  reaches  its 
highest  perfection,  in  the  south  of  Scotland,  for  instance. 
There  the  lads  who  are  going  to  be  head  farmers  or  stewards 
are  first  thoroughly  educated  in  the  schools  and  are  then  sent 
to  spend  a few  years  with  a “ scientific  farmer,”  as  he  is  there 
called ; that  is,  a practical  farmer  who  understands  all  branches 
of  the  business  and  has  in  operation  on  his  farm,  usually  a large 
one,  all  the  most  approved  methods.  There  he  serves  a sort  of 
apprenticeship,  giving  his  labor  for  the  instruction  he  receives. 
Possibly  some  modification  of  this  plan  will  be  found  to  work 
with  the  farms  attached  to  the  agricultural  colleges,  so  that  they 
can  be  at  once  models  for  instruction  and  remunerative,  or,  at 
least,  self-paying,  as  farms.  But  farming  can  be  learned  no 
where  but  on  a farm.  A learner  must  for  a time  be  an  appren- 
tice, either  to  some  one  else  or  to  himself.  However  wise  he 
may  be  in  the  theory  and  principles  of  agriculture,  he  will  be  a 
bungler  and  a loser  till  he  gain  skill  by  experience. 

I know  too  well  what  answer  many  will  make  to  all  this : 
“The  education  you  describe  is  something  very  fine,  but  it 
would  turn  our  children  into  gentlemen  and  ladies,  whom  we 
might  have  the  privilege  of  waiting  on.  Education  weans 
boys  from  the  love  of  work,  and  our  boys  must  work,  as  we 
did.  Your  scheme  is  not  practical.  It  may  do  for  the  sons  of 
a few  rich  farmers,  but  the  majority  of  boys  are  better  off  with 
a good  common  education  and  plenty  of  work.”  Are  the  far- 
mers of  Vermont,  then,  a peasant  class,  to  whom  education  is 
to  be  denied,  and  denied  by  themselves,  lest  it  lift  them  out  of 
the  station  in  which  it  has  pleased  Providence  to  place  them  ? 


28  SHADE  TREES  ALONG  THE  HIGHWAYS. 

Is  education  something  too  good  for  them,  something  fit  for 
their  betters,  but  not  for  them  ? I have  not  read  aright  the 
history  of  Vermont  if  any  such  spirit  as  this  is  native  to  the 
soil.  I believe  that  nothing  God  has  to  bestow  on  his  most 
favored  children  is  any  too  good  for  Vermonters,  or  for  farmers  ? 

If  education  will  make  gentlemen  and  ladies  of  our  children 

and  education  and  religion  certainly  will — there  is  no  place 
where  true  gentlemen  and  ladies  have  a better  right  to  live  and 
reign  and  multiply  their  kind  than  on  the  farms  and  in  the  homes 
of  V ermont.  And  if  there  is  any  good  thing  in  life  which  we 
failed  to  get  for  ourselves  because  we  came  too  early  in  the 
course  of  human  progress,  let  us  do  all  we  can  to  secure  it  for 
our  sons  and  daughters.  There  was  one  in  history  who  thought 
it  more  glory  to  be  a king-maker  than  a king.  Let  the  farmer 
who  is  uneducated  himself,  and  has  felt  his  deficiences,  get  his 
compensation  in  giving  superior  advantages  to  his  children. 

SHADE  TREES  ALONG  THE  HIGHWAYS. 

The  following  law  to  encourage  the  planting  of  trees  on  the 
public  roads  has  just  been  enacted  : 

Section  1.  Every  person  planting,  protecting  and  cultivating  forest  trees  for 
three  years,  one  quarter  mile  or  more,  along  any  public  highway,  shall  be  entitled 
to  receive  for  ten  years  thereafter,  an  annual  bounty  of  one  dollar  for  each  quarter 
mile,  so  planted  and  cultivated,  to  be  paid  out  of  the  state  treasury : but  such 
bounty  shall  not  be  paid  any  longer  than  such  line  of  trees  is  maintained. 

Sec.  2.  The  forest  trees  named  in  Sec.  1st  shall  include  the  elm,  maple,  tulip, 
ash,  basswood,  oak,  black  walnut  and  hickory. 

Sec.  3.  Elms  not  to  be  more  than  sixty  feet  apart,  and  the  others  not  more 
than  thirty  feet  apart. 

Sec.  4.  This  act  shall  take  effect  from  its  passage. 

Nothing  can  add  so  much  to  the  beauty  and  attractiveness 
of  our  country  roads  as  long  avenues  of  fine  trees.  One  sees 
this  illustrated  in  many  countries  in  Europe,  where  for  hun- 
dreds of  miles  on  a stretch  the  road  is  lined  with  trees.  W ith 
the  liberal  encouragement  offered  by  this  new  law,  no  time 
should  be  lost  in  securing  the  same  grand  attraction  to  the 
highways  of  Connecticut.  Growing  on  land  otherwise  running 
to  waste,  such  trees  would  yield  most  satisfactory  returns.  The 
shade  and  beauty  would  be  grateful  to  every  traveler,  but 
doubly  so  to  the  owner  and  planter,  as  the  happy  experience 
of  hundreds  of  our  farmers  can  now  testify,  for  a ground  work 
in  this  direction  is  already  well  started.  Having  in  abundance 
the  best  trees  for  the  roadside,  no  class  can  contribute  so  much 
to  the  adornment  of  our  public  roads  as  the  farmers.  In 
portions  of  Germany,  the  law  formerly  required  every  land- 
holder to  plant  trees  along  his  road  frontage.  Happy  would 
it  be  for  us  if  the  sovereigns  of  our  soil  would  each  make  such 
a law  for  himself. 


RURAL  IMPROVEMENT  ASSOCIATION. 


29 


CONSTITUTION  OF  A RURAL  IMPROVEMENT 
ASSOCIATION. 

As  plans  for  Rural  Improvement  are  often  called  for  and  as 
our  farmers  have  been  specially  active  in  this  good  work,  the 
following  regulations  and  by-laws  for  such  an  association  are 
here  given.  The  conditions  of  membership  may  properly  vary 
with  the  wealth  and  liberality  of  each  community.  Some  associ- 
ations fix  the  terms  of  membership  at  one,  two,  three  and  even 
five  dollars  annually , while  others  make  them  low  enough  to 
invite  the  cooperation  of  all  classes. 


1.  This  Association  shall  be  called  “ The  Rural  Improve- 
ment Association  of .” 

2.  The  object  of  this  Association  shall  be  to  cultivate  public 
spirit,  promote  good  fellowship,  quicken  the  intellectual  life  of 
the  people,  secure  public  health  by  better  sanitary  conditions 
in  our  homes  and  surroundings,  improve  our  streets,  roads,  road- 
sides, side- walks,  public  pounds,  protect  natural  scenery,  re- 
move nuisances,  provide  drinking  troughs,  break  out  paths 
through  the  snow,  and  in  general  to  build  up  and  beautify  the 
whole  town,  and  so  enhance  the  value  bf  its  property  and  render 
it  a still  more  inviting  place  of  residence. 

3.  The  officers  of  this  Association  shall  consist  of  a President, 
a Vice-President,  a Treasurer,  a Secretary,  and  an  Executive 
Committee  of  fifteen,  six  of  whom  shall  be  ladies. 

4.  It  shall  be  the  duty  of  the  Executive  Committee  to  make 
all  contracts,  employ  all  laborers,  expend  all  money,  and  super- 
intend all  improvements  made  by  the  Association.  They  shall 
hold  meetings  monthly  from  April  to  October  in  each  year, 
and  as  much.oftener  as  they  may  deem  expedient. 

5.  Every  person  who  shall  plant  three  trees  by  the  road-side, 
under  the  direction  of  the  Executive  Committee,  or  pay  three 
dollars  in  one  year  or  one  dollar  annually,  and  obligate  himself 
or  herself  to  pay  the  same  annually  for  three  years,  shall  be  a 
member  of  this  Association. 


30 


RURAL  IMPROVEMENT  ASSOCIATION. 


6.  The  payment  of  ten  dollars  annually  for  three  years,  or  of 
twenty-five  dollars  in  one  sum  shall  constitute  one  a life  mem- 
ber of  this  Association. 

7.  Five  members  of  the  Executive  Committee  present  at  any 
meeting  shall  constitute  a quorum. 

8.  No  debt  shall  be  contracted  by  the  Executive  Committee 
beyond  the  amount  of  available  means  within  their  control,  and 
no  member  of  the  Association  shall  be  liable  for  any  debt  of  the 
Association,  beyond  the  amount  of  his  or  her  subscription. 

9.  The  Executive  Committee  shall  call  an  annual  meeting, 
giving  due  notice  of  the  same,  for  the  election  of  officers  of 
this  Association,  and  at  said  meeting  shall  make  a detailed 
report  of  all  moneys  received  and  expended  during  the  year, 
the  number  of  trees  planted  under  their  direction,  and  the 
number  planted  by  individuals,  length  of  sidewalks  made  or 
repaired,  and  the  doings  of  the  Committee  in  general. 

10.  This  Constitution  may  be  amended  at  any  annual  meeting 
by  a two-thirds  vote  of  the  members  present  and  voting. 


r 


